Week Thirty Five - May 20th 2022
Kimberly Conlin
Dear Parents,
Nothing has been quite as exciting this year as opening our doors wide open for all the parents to come into the classrooms and engage in learning conferences led by the PYP students. This week student agency and thinking skills (metacognition) were highlighted as students of all ages talked about their own learning processes. Thank-you to our parents for jumping into the "learner" seat and celebrating student achievement and further goal setting. Thank-you to our amazing teaching staff for supporting and guiding our students and a big thank-you and congratulations to our young risk takers (students) for sharing.
A reminder that the parent CIS survey will close this weekend. We thank parents for taking the time to give feedback to both CIS and to us directly as we walk through extensive review process. The outcome of the full school review will be shared with the community upon its completion in 2023.
https://survey.cois.org/s3/Parent-Guardian-2021-2022-GEMS-International-School
Please join our ConnectEd this week to talk about supporting your child through the changes and transitions that come with the end of a school year. Students in International Schools are given opportunities to develop resilience and flexibility when transitions are handled well. Please join us to hear more about the approach from the school and to learn tips for parents and families at home.
Have a wonderful weekend!
In this edition you will find:
Announcements / Reminders / Upcoming dates
Peek Into Learning: PreK
Celebrating Student-Led Conferences
Parent ConnectEd : RAFT Model - Preparing for Transitions
Primary Pages - link to Grade and Class pages
PYP reminders and resources
May 24th-26th- School Musical
May 30th - June 3rd- MAP assessment week (Grades 1-5)
June 6th- 10th- Arts Week
June 13th-16th- Book Fair
June 24th- Grade 5 Completion Ceremony (*subject to KHDA approval) + Last Day of ECAs
July 1st- Last day of school
*Fridays- wear your house color shirt*
Our Pre-K students have been tuning into their new unit of inquiry, 'People Express Themselves Creatively'. Students have been developing an understanding of what it means to be creative and express themselves. They have been using loose parts to create their own art, as well as exploring the texture and properties of clay. In art they have explored texture to create a texture garden, and they have been using dance and music to connect to and express their feelings.
Students have been discussing how colours connect to emotions. Here, they shared which colours make them feel happy.
In art, students used different materials to create a texture garden. Students were able to use their imagination to create the different parts.
Here students used scarves to create shapes in movement and dance and expressed how happy they are!
Our Innovation and Technology coach has been co-teaching in lessons, teaching students how to express their ideas through a drawing app that turns their ideas into an animation!
Keeping our community safe with Covid-19 Protocols: if your child is a close contact or receives a positive test result please inform: gis_medicalalert@gemsedu.com
Email your child's homeroom teacher before 8am so that he / she can mark their absence as excused.
Complete an absence form for an absence of more than 2 days and submit to PYP office or homeroom teacher on the child's first day back.
Absence for more than 3 days requires prior approval if planned or a doctors clearance for illness related leave (in some cases a medical certificate is requested )
Email the gis_primaryleaverequest@gemsedu.com and your child's homeroom teacher 48 hours in advance to ensure your child and their leave slip are prepared in advance.
At the time of collection, please come to the Primary Reception at Gate 4.